Category: Chapter10: In the Unlikely Event You Need Oxygen

There are times when the buyer will respond with the request for a delay. The requests are usually about time and money, in that it’s not the right time, or there’s another budget cycle approaching, or that there may be too much disruption at the moment. If you simply accept these requests in good faith, you will be doomed. 

Here are my tricks of the trade for counteracting these not-infrequent requests: 

1. Find out what’s changed. 

If nothing has changed, then the buyer wouldn’t be asking for the delay. After all, you probably (should have) already asked if there were any obstacles not discussed after conceptual agreement but prior to writing the proposal. 

So something had to have changed, or the buyer wasn’t being candid with you before. Find out if it’s a legitimate obstacle, such as a budget abruptly reduced or a new responsibility added, or if it’s a chimera. If nothing has changed, then it’s just an excuse.

If there is new information or concern, work with the buyer to overcome it. Any delay in your project will probably doom it. My estimation is that 90 percent of proposals that are delayed after submission are never accepted at all. Make these arguments: 

• There is no time like the present. The project’s advantages and value will be even more important in a tougher environment or with the threat of disruption. 

• You’ve seen this before. You can adapt and you can help the buyer to adapt to the new circumstances as the project goes forward. 

• The budget will be lost if it’s not used. The buyer clearly had funds he or she was willing to invest. Those funds might well be removed or redirected if not invested in this project now. 

• Offer to meet the buyer’s boss if that would be helpful and is possible. 

• Offer to reorient your efforts and the project to incorporate and/or address the new priority and new issues. You’re a valued resource, the buyer has a new need, money has been allocated—you can get a running start. 

2. Find out if it’s an excuse. 

The buyer will sometimes offer a lack of money or time as an excuse. Here is what might have transpired and what you can do about it: 

• Subordinates have learned of the project and are terrified. In this case, tell the buyer that lower level people are always discomfited when there is a threat to the “nest,” but that you’ll be happy to place a few of them on a steering committee to give them formal input. 

• Someone else has learned of the cost and has objected, without under- standing the value or ROI. Offer to explain to the offended party or to provide the buyer with the language and rationale to handle the objective. 

• As in my case study, your buyer may be “big hat, no cattle” and be intimidated about actually approving the work. In this case, don’t throw good money after bad. Some people are just afraid. 

3. There is a legitimate cause for pause. 

The buyer may be undergoing a personal setback in terms of a family problem, illness, or finances; the organization may have added responsibilities to the buyer, demanding that the buyer travel somewhere, or actually frozen all budgets. These events happen all too often. 

Try to establish the best time to pick up the discussion again. If the matter is personal and you know that, provide some breathing space and simply keep in touch with the buyer’s assistants until you’re told that things have stabilized and he or she is attending to work again. If it’s organizational, work with the buyer to choose definitive review dates and times to assess next steps. 

Legitimate delays aren’t always fatal, though they are most of the time. Try to “stay in the game” with frequent contact and review of status. Remind the buyer that the terms in the proposal are not eternal, and that your availability and your fees may change abruptly. 

Case Study: The Hospital CEO 

I was introduced to the CEO of a major hospital group who needed coaching, because he wasn’t getting along with a key subordinate and also had problems with his boss, the board chair. We agreed to meet in person, and he flew in on the company’s private jet. I picked him up in my Bentley convertible, and he told me he had a similar model. 

We spent two hours at my house and, as a result, I FedExed a proposal after taking him back to the airport and the private jet. 

My top option was a $45,000-a-month coaching relationship, with less expensive Options 1 and 2. After a week, he finally returned my messages, and said that Option 3 was clearly the only one that made sense, but he could never justify the cost. He was afraid of what his disruptive subordinate might say to his prickly chairman of the board.

“But your jet trip to see me cost you that much,” I pointed out. 

“Yes, but no one really knows the purpose of that trip.” 

So the Bentley-driving, million-dollar CEO had to opt out because he was afraid of what others might think. Of course, he could have funded this himself, but that was apparently unthinkable. You can’t win them all. 

But most of all, remember that time and money are not resources, but are rather priorities. So don’t fall victim to a wait until resources are forthcoming. Instead, build a case that you and your project represent a larger priority than those to which money and time are currently being invested. This is what can dramatically shorten your process and best overcome this objection. 

If you’re a large enough priority, resources will flow to you nonetheless. Continually demonstrate your importance to your buyer, the organization, and the results that were specified in the proposal. All good things do not come to people who wait. 

They come to people who make their case. 

We all experience “defeat.” The best hitters in baseball are successful only about a third of the time. The best soccer players might score once every other game. The important thing is to get up to bat and to be in the game. You can’t hit if you don’t swing, and you can’t score if you’re on the bench. 

Moreover, success is a matter of small amounts. The horse that wins its race by a nose gets the same purse and prize it would have received if it had won by six lengths. First is first, it’s not measured by degree. And that first place finish is worth about 10 times the prizes awarded to the second-place horse. But the winner didn’t have to train 10 times as hard, have 10 times the investment, or run 10 times faster. 

It just had to win by a nose. 

On the golf tours, the first-place prize is often in the millions, and tends to dwarf the prizes for second through 10th places. But do you have any idea of the difference in strokes per round between the winner of tour events and the 10th-place finishers? How many strokes difference, per round, do you think it takes to be first rather than 10th? 

Less than one stroke per round, that’s how many. 

My point is that there is a razor-thin line of demarcation between winning a proposal and it being rejected, and that you can turn things in your favor by following my system and processes to enhance your odds. (I’m actually writing this segment in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Resort, and the smart thing to do in the casino is to play games least in the house’s favor and most in your favor. Blackjack is good, roulette is not.)

No matter how well we play the game, we sometimes lose. An unattributed quote that I particularly like: 

You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out. But you have to suit up for them all. 

So what happens when you’re rejected? Here are the absolutely critical factors you need to consider to avoid thinking and acting as if it’s a disaster: 

1. Don’t take it personally. 

Let me put that another way: Don’t take it personally! This isn’t about you, or your worth, or your beliefs. Don’t generalize from a specific, as in, “My proposal was rejected after all this work and time, I must not be cut out for this work.” Use the points below to extract worth and value and improve. 

2. Find out why. 

Ask your buyer if he or she could help educate you so that you can improve in the future. Don’t be defensive, and never accept, “Oh, it wasn’t you and it was close, it could have gone either way,” from someone trying not to hurt your feelings. That doesn’t help your learning. Ask this critical question, “What is the one thing I could have done differently that might have resulted in my getting the project?” Find out if it’s something you said, or didn’t include, or misquoted, or failed to understand. Then make sure that doesn’t happen again. If you find you’re getting the same feedback after several failed proposals, then you’re just not listening. 

3. Ask for future consideration. 

You’ve built a fine relationship and reached the “finals” of this event. Why throw all of this away just because you didn’t win this particular race? Ask the buyer if he or she would consider you for similar work in the future. They may well be quite happy to do so. 

Case Study: Barbara’s Timing 

I was mentoring Barbara, who sent me three proposals that had been rejected over the course of two months. Each had some common problems, such as insufficient expressed value and poor options to choose among. “What should I do?” she whined. “I just don’t seem to be able to master this!” 

“I’d suggest you send me the proposal before you submit it, not after it is rejected.” 

She did that, and closed her very next deal for $80,000. Never try to fix what you can prevent in the first place. 

4. Ask for permission to stay in touch. 

Another way of extending the relationship is through periodic contact. (How else would Point 3 above really work?) So ask if it’s agreeable to: 

• Put them on your mailing or newsletter lists. 

• Check in with them after the current project is under way. (Sometimes an alternative resource fails quickly, and the client has to scramble to re- cover the situation. You could serve as the “relief pitcher.”) 

• Have them consider you as a sounding board on occasion if they need some assistance from an objective source. (A little “free consulting” might get you back in the door.) 

5. Ask for referrals. 

This sounds completely crazy, I know, but I’ve discovered a fascinating dynamic: You’ve established a strong relationship with a buyer, who may feel a bit guilty in not selecting you. This request provides some expiation and atonement. The buyer will often say, “You’d be just right for a colleague in marketing,” or, “I know they’re looking for help in R&D, call Moe Adams. . . .” It can’t hurt, and it often results in a high-quality lead. 

All of these steps assume a solid and trusting relationship with an economic buyer who happened to choose another resource for the work. That means that your opportunity to ask these questions and suggest these actions will be successful, because phone calls will be returned (don’t use e-mail, for the reasons we’ve discussed earlier—make this as personal as you can—and in person is best because the buyer will be even more eager to be conciliatory). 

Learn from your defeats, it’s what they study in West Point. If you’re not failing, then you’re not trying. But if you’re making the same mistakes over and over, then you’re on a treadmill to doom. 

Hop off that track and land on your feet. 

You’ll learn from your victories and defeats what you can do better the next time. My proposals have become stronger, not by changing the format—which I’ve found to be consistently effective for my purposes—but from the content I insert into the template. ‘

By way of both summary and best practices, here are 12 keys for continual improvement: 

1. Ensure that you are talking only to an economic buyer.
2. Establish a trusting relationship, no matter how long that takes.¹
3. Gain conceptual agreement on objectives—results to be achieved.
4. Gain conceptual agreement on metrics—progress indicators.
5. Gain conceptual agreement on value—impact of the results.
6. Review and ascertain if there are any obstacles to proceeding.
7. Create a proposal with options or increasing value and fee.
8. Ensure that you demonstrate an impressive ROI.
9. Get the proposal in front of the buyer quickly.
10. Establish definitive next steps, times, dates.
11. Follow up as agreed on to find buyer’s decision.
12. Implement as rapidly as you can to “pour cement.”

Like a golfer who has to perfect tee shots, bunker shots, putts, course management, and so forth, you need to improve in each area until you are unconsciously competent in each. If these are the 12 steps to proposal acceptance, and you can master each and handle objections at a point in the sequence, then your success ratio will probably be well above 80 percent. 

You may need to adjust your proposals and their format in view of: 

•RFPs
•Retainers
•Legal departments
•Client requests and requirements

One of the greatest “threats” is in proposals that have insufficient fees in terms of the value being offered. 

When your fees are high and the buyer’s commitment is low, you have no sale. When the buyer’s commitment is low and your fees are low, you have apathy. When fees are low but commitment is high you have a wasted opportunity. Only when both commitment and fees are high do you create reciprocal value. (See Figure 10.1.)

FIGURE 10.1 Fee and commitment relationship 

The upper left shows where consultants frequently and habitually leave money on the table. They have a committed buyer and the potential to provide great value, but their fees are too low. That is money that is never recoverable. The entire point of the proposal process is to try to place yourself in a position of providing value in options that represent appropriate fees for the value in any given option.

You may find that in your markets your proposals need extra dimensions. Clients might want to know how many people will be used on the project. Or they might need to know who owns “work product.” I wouldn’t normally include such issues but I would be happy to include them for a particular client who has a good reason for asking. 

When your proposals are rejected, make it a top priority to find out why. It’s seldom the luck of the draw or the result of some committee. There’s something you could have done a better job with, and it’s usually involving the buyer. Too many consultants don’t “run through the tape” but rather let up at the finish line. That is, they ask the buyer a few questions but not enough questions. They get information but not the most important information. They unearth some value but not the maximum value that the buyer would derive. There’s a tendency to say, “Whew!” after the buyer answers a question that prompts the consultants to want to get it over with, rather than seeing an opportunity for further questioning and mining still more value. 

The format is easy; it’s the content that makes the difference. 

Thus, the constant improvement of your proposals will be based on your ability to secure the highest possible content from your buyer. The time you spend in the buyer’s office, asking questions and pursuing potential value, constitutes the most crucial aspect of creating a winning proposal. 

 

There is an interesting phenomenon that accrues with success: The more successful you are, the more successful you become. Or as my father used to say from our lower class status watching those better off: “Them that has, gets.” 

As your proposals create high rates of acceptance, start to experiment with your approaches. After all, you’re now playing with “house money.” There is no time to try new things (and possibly fail in a good cause) as from a position of strength. 

Some examples: 

Assess which options are usually selected. If it’s usually Option 2, how can you make your Option 3 more compelling? If it’s usually Option 3, then you may be charging enough for that alternative. If it’s usually Option 1, then you might be putting far too much value in your first option, making the next two seem inappropriately expensive for too little additional value. 

• Evaluate how many current and past clients have chosen a retainer option with you. If the number is only three to four per year, perhaps you’re not aggressive enough in presenting the option. Or perhaps you haven’t provided enough additional value for the buyer to want you to be around even after the current project is completed. 

• Find out how many clients have chosen to pay the full fee in advance with the discount you’re offering. If very few, then perhaps you haven’t made the alternative sufficiently visible, or the discount is too small. If nearly everyone, perhaps the discount is too large. 

• Assess how many of your proposals and the projects they represented led to repeat business and extended work (not retainers, but more projects). Investigate why this didn’t happen even more often. Were you not providing sufficient ideas and incentives to continue with you, or did the buyer see you in too narrow a role, not suited for other things? Were you not meeting new buyers during your time on-site? 

Let me dispel a myth at this point: It is entirely possible and, in fact, desirable, to market while you are delivering a project. The old rubric that “you can’t deliver and market at the same time” is an excuse thrown up by people who don’t know how to market! 

Case Study: My Surprise at Merck 

George was an international development manager at one of my largest clients, Merck, and he was my most significant single buyer, purchasing about $250,000 of consulting work per year through single proposals. He would take the 10 percent discount, and pay me $225,000 in early January, because Merck was on a calendar year as their fiscal year. 

I was asking my buyers at the time why they chose the discount so that I could determine if I was at the right rate or not. When I got to George, I received quite a shock. 

“Oh, I don’t care about the size of the discount, or the discount at all,” he said, smiling. “I pay your full fee in advance because that way no one can cancel my project.” 

Talk about how stupid I was two weeks ago! It was in George’s self-interest to pay me early because the inevitable “tremors” with a large company caused budgets to shift, but you can’t shift a budget that’s already been spent! I immediately added this to my list of reasons to pay me in advance—it’s in your self-interest! 

While you’re on-site, you’ll find ample opportunity to meet colleagues of the buyer who are buyers themselves. You’ll also meet lower level people who would gladly introduce you to their boss. There is nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical about meeting these people and investigating whether a relationship is possible. 

Your mind-set has to be: I have tremendous value to provide, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer it to these other people as long as I’m here. 

The worst thing that happens is that nothing happens. But the criminal thing that happens is that you don’t even try. I’m not advocating that you visit the client each day with PowerPoint slides and order forms. But I am urging you to seek out and create relationships with additional buyers, which I call “lateral marketing.” 

Quite a few of the people I’ve mentored and helped with proposals have been told by their clients that the proposal they submitted “made all the difference” at selection time. They’ve entrepreneurially suggested that perhaps their clients’ own sales forces would benefit from adapting similar aspects in their own approach to customers. So in many cases, they’ve turned the proposal itself into an item of value for the client with appropriate compensation. 

The overall format can be readily adjusted for non monetary purposes that still represent success for you in other areas. The sequence of establishing trusting relationships and identifying objectives, measures, value, and joint accountabilities is useful in gaining influence, persuading others, and creating consensus. The approach is useful on boards, committees, task forces, and so forth. The person applying the approach will usually be seen as at least the informal leader. 

Options, of course, are applicable across a wide range of business and personal issues, and help to create compromise, defuse hostility, and move others from “Should I?” to “How should I?” You can provide your kids with alternatives, or your boss, or your significant other, or yourself. You can ask others to provide additional options to gain further inclusion.

The main consideration, perhaps, is to continually examine your fees. As your acceptance rates increase, place upward pressure on your fees (no one else will do this for you). You’re always better off with a few high-priced proposals than a plethora of low-priced ones, even if the eventual total dollars are the same. The client is concerned about value. Provide all the value you can, so that you needn’t be concerned about fee, because the client sees huge ROI. 

Never, assuming you continue to work in professional services. 

But there are times when proposal writing is far less important or actually dysfunctional. 

For example, there are many types of work you can choose to do on a “hand- shake” or brief email exchange after you’re successful, well known, and have long- term relationships with buyers. Sometimes a proposal becomes “overkill” or even insulting to long-term buyers. 

Here are five occasions when you can stop writing certain kinds of proposals. 

1. When the project is very short term. In this case the buyer wants you to come in for a day to brief some key people on how best to deal with a hostile client, or to provide a day of coaching for a key executive. Just cite a price and do it. 

2. When the project is identical to one in the recent past. For example, conduct a strategy review for Unit B the same way you did for Unit A about a month ago. 

3. When it’s a discrete task or deliverable: Provide a template for the steps all of our managers must adhere to in order to legally and ethically terminate a management-level employee.

4. Almost all retainers. 

5. Singular “assignment events,” such as speaking for a half-day as a part of a conference. 

In these and related assignments you’d actually be shooting yourself in the foot if you subjected yourself and your buyer to the rigor of a full-blown proposal. A real or verbal handshake is usually fine in these instances. You can always document whatever you need to in a simple letter or email. 

Ironically, you should create proposals for most pro bono work, because you want a record of what was agreed on to prevent scope creep in a situation where you’re not getting paid to begin with, and you want documentation of your success because a testimonial and references are going to be your key dividends.

Remember that buyers change and conditions change, and no handshake will trump a changed board policy or the transfer and replacement of your buyer. We’ve talked about the utility of accompanying a dreadful RFP with your own proposal. 

I continue to use my proposal template today for all major client work and all major coaching work. As a rule of thumb, any potential project involving more than $35,000 or so should have a written proposal. Both you and the client deserve that protection. Remember that one of the benefits of a proposal that we spoke of early in the book is that neither party can unilaterally change it. Thus, this is a fundamental good-faith agreement between you and your buyer in a trusting relationship, which no legal team should be able to tear asunder.

The size of the proposal’s project and its scope are not relevant to the size of the proposal itself—about 2.5 pages—so this simple document will ensure success and protect you while requiring very little labor investment to create and to track. 

In summarizing this book, I’d like you to always bear in mind that if you leave $100,000 on the table each year—that could be as little as four proposals under- charged by $25,0000 each—you will lose $100,000 that will never, ever be recovered. That’s a million dollars in 10 years, total profit less taxes, that you’ll never see again. If you’re leaving more than $100,000 on the table and/or for more years, you could easily be losing millions of dollars that are vital to your family, life, and business.

I’ve heard from thousands of people who read my former book on the subject that they couldn’t believe that they “almost immediately gained $45,000 per proposal,” or “raised the hit rate to 85 percent from under 50 percent,” or “reduced time on each project by at least a third.” These methodical proposals can save you time and make you money. Ignore them at your own peril. 

Above all, this is a relationship business, grounded on the trust generated between you and your economic buyer. Don’t be distracted. What’s your value, who can write a check for it, and how do you find or attract those buyers? You do that consistently and you’ll provide great value to your clients and continuing wealth for yourself and your loved ones. Don’t stray from that path. That’s my proposal to you. 

Note 

1. Within reason—several meetings are reasonable, but two years is not.